A Colorado-based go-kart racer with a championship record across multiple series and engine packages, Joelle Lewis is building a competitive résumé with one destination clearly in mind: Formula 1.

EARLY YEARS

She grew up at the track — not as a driver, initially, but as a spectator cheering on her brother Brody Lewis, who began competitive karting in 2012 with the then-Colorado Junior Karting Club [1]. Watching Brody race wasn’t a passive experience. By the time she was old enough to climb into a kid kart herself — and by some accounts, maybe a little before that — Joelle Lewis was already determined to compete [1]. She joined Lewis Racing as a driver in 2013 [2], entering a family operation run by Terry Lewis, who functions as the team’s mechanic, primary sponsor, coach, and, as the team’s own documentation puts it, psychologist [9]. It is a genuine family enterprise, and she has been part of it from the beginning.

OTHER INTERESTS

Joelle Lewis maintains a YouTube channel documenting her racing journey, with content tagged across motorsports topics including go-karting and Formula 1 [8]. Beyond that, the public record stays close to the track. What’s documented is a competitor who, when not racing, appears to be thinking about racing — which, for someone with her stated ambitions, is probably not an accident.

EARLY SUCCESS

Her first competitive season in 2014 produced her first podium finish [1]. One year later, she made the results impossible to ignore. In 2015, she won the Kid Kart championship at The Track at Centennial, taking first place in every race but two [1]. That kind of dominance in a first championship season is not a fluke — it is evidence of genuine speed relative to her competitive field. She spent three years total in the Kid Kart class, competing across both The Track at Centennial’s Rotax series and the Colorado Karting Tour’s Honda, LO206, and Rotax series, accumulating experience across different engine packages and technical specifications before aging out of the category [1].

In 2016, her final Kid Kart season, she placed fourth overall in the class [1]. The following year she moved into the next available age-appropriate categories: LO206 Junior 1 Cadet and Rotax MicroMax [1]. That dual-series approach — testing different competitive structures simultaneously — reflected the strategic orientation that would continue to characterize her career development through the decade that followed.

The 2022 season brought a move up to the Junior Max class within the Colorado Karting Tour [1]. In 2023, she returned to the LO206 Jr. 2 class in the same series. She was on pace for the championship when lapped traffic disrupted her on two separate occasions, costing her the title [1]. She finished second overall in what the team describes as a very competitive class [1]. Frustrating as that outcome was, the competitive position itself — close enough to win a title, undone by traffic rather than pace — told its own story about where her speed stood relative to the field.

That same year, she also competed in the Rok the Rockies series at SBR Motorsports in Colorado Springs, capturing the series championship and earning an invitation to Rok Vegas [1][12]. Two competitive series, two strong results. The 2023 season established her as someone operating at a legitimately high regional level across multiple karting disciplines.

In 2024, she committed to an intentionally heavy racing schedule, deciding to race as much as she possibly could in order to build her skill set and gain experience [1]. That season included eight races in the Rotax West series, held across Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Amarillo, Texas; and Grand Junction, Colorado [1][15]. Within the Colorado Karting Tour, she also stepped up to the Adult LO206 class — a category running on less-grippy tires that required adjustment [1]. She took a couple of races to adapt to the tire compound. Once she did, she ran consistently in the top three and won three of the final five races of the season [1]. That late-season run was enough to secure the regional championship in the LO206 Lights class [1].

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

• 2014: First competitive podium finish in Kid Kart class competition [1].
• 2015: Kid Kart Championship at The Track at Centennial, winning first place in all but two races of the season [1].
• 2023: Second place overall finish in LO206 Jr. 2 class, Colorado Karting Tour [1].
• 2023: Rok the Rockies series championship at SBR Motorsports, Colorado Springs, earning an invitation to Rok Vegas [1][12].
• 2024: Regional Championship, LO206 Lights class, Colorado Karting Tour [1].
• 2024: Won three of the final five races in the Adult LO206 division, Colorado Karting Tour [1].
• 2024: Competed in eight Rotax West series races across Phoenix AZ, Tucson AZ, Amarillo TX, and Grand Junction CO [1][15].
• 2025: Ranked 182nd in the eKartingNews.com Driver Rankings, TaG category, with 1,471 points [7].

INSPIRATIONS

Her brother Brody Lewis, whose racing career she watched from the sidelines before finding her own seat in a kart, appears to be her earliest and most direct influence [1]. Terry Lewis, who manages, coaches, and funds the family’s racing operation, has been the structuring force behind her competitive development since she joined Lewis Racing in 2013 [1][9]. Beyond the family, the sources don’t specify which drivers she looks to — but the Formula 1 hashtags on her YouTube videos and her stated goal of reaching the sport’s top tier suggest she is paying close attention to what’s happening at the pinnacle of the sport [8].

REPUTATION

The competitive record speaks more clearly here than any third-party commentary available in the public record — grassroots regional karting doesn’t generate the kind of media coverage that produces documented peer assessments. What the results indicate is a driver who improves through a season rather than burning bright early and fading, who adapts to new technical conditions within a short window, and who is competitive enough at the regional level to win championships and contend for more. The 2023 championship loss to lapped traffic rather than outright pace is the kind of detail that tends to matter to anyone evaluating genuine competitive potential. There is no documented controversy, no infractions, and no counter-narrative in the available record.

FUTURE GOALS/PLANS

The goal is Formula 1. She has been clear about that, and the framing she uses is practical rather than merely aspirational: the plan involves progressing through faster cars on the way there [1]. She has also said she wants to build a career that keeps her close to the sport she loves while she continues working toward that goal [1] — which suggests she understands the landscape well enough to know that motorsports offers career paths beyond the cockpit, and she intends to stay inside that world regardless of how the competitive trajectory develops.

As of 2025, she holds a national ranking in the TaG category through eKartingNews.com [7] and appears to be continuing to build her competitive schedule at the regional level. The establishment of programs like the F1 Academy — Formula 1’s own structured pathway specifically designed to develop female talent toward the sport’s top tier [6] — means the pipeline she is aiming for is more formally constructed than it has been for any previous generation of women in motorsports. Whether she progresses into that pipeline will depend on the competitive results still ahead of her.

References:

Lewis Racing Colorado – Joelle Lewis Profile
OpenFender – Joelle Lewis Driver Profile
Lewis Racing Colorado – Meet the Team
Lewis Racing Colorado – Terry Lewis Profile
Lewis Racing Colorado – Brody Lewis Profile
Motorsport.com – Top 10 Female Racers of All Time
eKartingNews.com – 2025 Driver Rankings, TaG Final
Joelle Lewis – YouTube Channel
SBR Motorsports Park – Rok the Rockies
Race Rotax – 2024 US Trophy West Series Championship Results
Lewis Racing Colorado – Team Blog
Lewis Racing Colorado – Sponsorship Opportunities